Public Service Announcement regarding Purim

creativemommyto3

Fri, Jan 11 2008, 2:36 am

btMOMtoFFBs wrote:

Shalhevet, I know your PSA was totally in jest. And it was cute. But I wanted to say that smart, busy women really do need to plan ahead.

Its wise to think and plan now for Purim. What's wrong with sewing costumes already? It can be done now without stress or pressure - who needs more of that in their life.

The women who plan now won't face crowded stores or sold out costumes. We'll be sipping coffee on 13 Adar while the non-planners will be up till 2:00 a.m. cooking, assembling shaloch manos, sewing costumes, etc.

I don't call advanced planning panicking, I call it an erev yom tov stress-reliever. But if its not your style, then that's OK too.

(Same goes for Pesach, BTW! )

This is the way I am doing it. I want to enjoy my purim and my pesach. I already started decluttering so my cleaning will be easier. Being organized will make us less frazzled and therefore keep our shalom bayis in tact . Some of us would be quite cranky doing things last minute.

p.s. btmomtoffbs, I love your shaloch manos ideas, I think I am going to use one of those. my husband just can't figure out how I would package a soup. Very Happy

creativemommyto3

Fri, Jan 11 2008, 2:37 am

btMOMtoFFBs wrote:

shalhevet

Fri, Jan 11 2008, 3:49 am

miriamf wrote:

btMOMtoFFBs wrote:

But I wanted to say that smart, busy women really do need to plan ahead.

I guess that makes me a stupid, bored woman.
Crying

Actually, my motto is smart, busy women SIMPLIFY
You don't need to plan so much and work so hard if you don't bother with themes and hand-sewn costumes and fancy menus. If you enjoy doing that stuff, more power to you. I don't, and I amvery happy that way

I'm with you miriamf; thanks for the support. I just don't get what takes so long. Believe me I have a nice, organized Purim, but what do I have to do for TEN weeks now? We have a gemach here open on Rosh Chodesh (or thereabouts) and I take my children to choose a costume there. Maybe a week or two before I'll ask them what they want to dress up as - sometimes there are costumes we put together ourselves. I usually bake cakes for SM and freeze them the first week of Adar (II), and buy other things for SM that week.

In fact, I start Pesach long before I start Purim. The only reason you ladies need TEN weeks to prepare is that you (or so it seems from some posts here) need to decide on the most original theme for the whole family, spend days round the shops searching out the perfect accessories, find the basket/bag/box that no one else has ever thought of.... (There, crayon, I didn't want to disappoint you Wink

) And even after I've thought of that I still don't get what takes so long.

The Rambam writes that a person should spend more money on matanos la'evyonim rather than SM and the seuda. Maybe we should about that time-wise as well.

If people enjoy this and don't get stressed out, then why not? Enjoy! (Unless of course it means you are putting pressure on all those around you to dedicate equal amounts of time and/or sums of money. Or coming on the backs of your children who have a stressed out, tired Mommy for weeks before.) But there are plenty of posts here as we come up to Purim full of stress and misery at all that is expected of women here. Not to mention a recent post where a poster said she likes YK and Tisha B'Av the best of all the YT, because she doesn't have all the work before. Sad

suomynona

Fri, Jan 11 2008, 4:14 am

miriamf wrote:

btMOMtoFFBs wrote:

But I wanted to say that smart, busy women really do need to plan ahead.

I guess that makes me a stupid, bored woman.
Crying

I could have written this post, but as usual, you say it better!

Speaking of Purim, anyone have an idea of a very simple but tasteful mishloach manos, not expensive that takes about 5 minutes to prepare? If yes, please get back to me 2 weeks before purim.
I like to bake but don't have a pareve oven and don't have time to kasher mine, so it gets too complicated.

amother

Fri, Jan 11 2008, 4:25 am

Dh is in college kiruv....so there is a lot to do, both for the students and my own family! We have a very large seuda (in fact students have been reserving space at the table since last Purim!) Plus, this year I'll have to plan for many of them being here on Thursday night and Shabbos. I make hundreds of Shalach Manos for dh to give out. It's a lot of fun and I don't mind the work. When dh was a shul rav, I also made hundreds to give out to the congregants...no way could we choose who to give to! Now, my older girls help filling the bags, too, so I don't do it alone.
For our friends, I make a nice, modest bag or basket filled with goodies, usually about 25 od them. Last year we had the students arrive early and they delivered our Shalach Manos! They had a great time meeting new families.

My girls all want to be Queen Esther, so we go through the costume box and see what fits which girl. And there are a few cute things for my son. Then we buy each girl a set of plastic jewelry and crown...which they get to keep and play with after Purim is over.

I try not to feel overwhelmed and enjoy the day! I

amother

Fri, Jan 11 2008, 5:14 am

Ok, so this is my first real purim with ds - he'll be a almost 2. I want to dress him as a chossid - bekeshe & streimel. Does anyone know where to buy this?

Dh always wears a bekeshe and streimel because some opinions say you should dress up for Purim and others say to wear shabbos clothes - so my dh being holy and all, will wear someone else's shabbos clothes (we're not chassidish). Anyone know where to get them? I don't think I could possible sew anything like that.

suomynona

Fri, Jan 11 2008, 6:00 am

shalhevet wrote:

suomynona wrote:

I like to bake but don't have a pareve oven and don't have time to kasher mine, so it gets too complicated.

I put a sticker on mine saying 'parev, baked in a fleishig oven'.

so I did that one year. But, I don't know, it's just so....
How do you say that in Hebrew in case I change my mind?
Also how do you package the cake with the 2nd item? And what do you usually give as a 2nd item?
I hate cellphane. It takes too long.

See now here I am planning my mishloach manos a few months before purim Smile

btMOMtoFFBs

Fri, Jan 11 2008, 6:38 am

Ladies, if you want to bash women who plan in advance and get things done early as "panicking" or being too elaborate with costumes and SM, so be it...

I am not doing anything fancy, not sewing or making anything elaborate for SM, I just like to check things off my list as early as I can to avoid last minute rush and potential stress. I do this for Shabbos, all YTs, etc.. Its my style and it works and I'm teaching my children good life skills through my example.

creativemommy, when I made the soup shalach manos I went to a store like Amazing Savings and bought disposable, round, small containers. I bought gingham material, cut it into large squares and attached it around the top with a rubber band. It looks a bit like a country jar of preserves when you're finished.

I just made a small bag with soup mandlen and taped it onto the container.

On each lid I put a sticker "have a souper Purim", from XXX family.

People loved this shalach manos and many ate it right away for a healthy lunch.

Hope it works out for you.

creativemommyto3

Fri, Jan 11 2008, 7:33 am

With me , I do everything simple but I like to be prepared. I don't believe in fancy themes . The banana one and soup one sound right up my alley. I also heard of using tissue boxes (here in israel bags) and going "Tshuasam , Tshuasam etc." Preparing in advance means that I can collect my bags from the tissues for the container etc.
When you don't have much money it is much smarter to plan. This way I can do things like bake my hamantashen on rosh chodesh adar alef along with other cake ,dessert for the seuda. Then on Rosh chodesh adar beis I can do challos and the kreplach. Then after that I can do some cooking and freezing for the seuda like soup, sides and then do salads on the day of the seuda.

I have been decluttering my already cluttered israeli apt so that it will be easier to clean for pesach. Get my drift...

btMOMtoFFBs

Fri, Jan 11 2008, 7:55 am

I do the same, creative3. I am picking up materials now. I will start to make my labels, poem (thanks to imokay!), buy ingredients and bake.

I also find doing things in advance saves money.

BTW, I start decluttering for Pesach after tu b'shvat! My upstairs and basement levels will hopefully be chametz free by R"C Adar II. I work out of the house part time every day so if I don't begin cleaning for Pesach then, I will never get it done. I can't pay for extra help and I don't want to be up all night doing it as we get closer to Nisan.

I promise you I am not one upping anyone. I know people who can do it all very shortly before Yom Tov and I'm happy they have a system that works for them, too. Some people thrive on the pressure of a deadline - I just stress out... so I start everything early.

gryp

Fri, Jan 11 2008, 11:21 am

It's a funny Purim this year- on a Friday. We eat the seudah before Chatzos. I'll probably cook everything for Shabbos on Thursday and put some aside for our seudah.

I like my Shalach Manos last year (a fruit basket), I think I'll stick to it again this year. The only thing I have to buy in advance is the baskets, and how long does that take really when all the stores sell them the week before Purim. Fruit I need to buy the day before, can't buy that in advance.

I do like to stick in some homemade things sometimes, or make a few other shalach manos of a different kind just in case. I usually do hamantaschen, chocolates, and I was thinking a small pan of cherry crumble or double decker brownies would be nice.

Dressing up, my boys want to be clowns again. Not a big deal to pick up another $7 costume from the stores.

Mama Bear

Fri, Jan 11 2008, 1:40 pm

I'm afraid to borrow a real dress in case it gets torn or soiled. my sister can lend me plenty dresses but I'd rather buy something.

btmommy, I also start cleaning/decluttering for pesch by tu bishvat, only this year I'll iyh start on rosh chodesh adar I since there is an extra month. after purim the dining room is chometz free and I start the kitchen. I do a little at a time; like one chest, 2 drawers etc a day.

amother

Fri, Jan 11 2008, 4:15 pm

Mamabear I don't want you to take this wrong and who knows really why stuff happend to me but I feel I should tell anyways .

I too wanted to dress up my son as a girl so cute! He had such good features for a girl and I was so excited to dress him up and all he was only a toddler then I had no girl . That Taanis Esther tradgedy struck, I lost my child to a fatal accident. Crying

Who knows why things happen but I can't help in the back of my mind thinking, that perhaops it was becoz of this that Hashem deemd it to take him to another world .